Papua New Guinea Nebilyer Peaberry

Nebilyer Valley is a growing region in the Western Highlands next to Waghi Valley. The mill processing this coffee is called Kuta, and it processes and blends the coffee brought in from small farmers in the immediate surrounding area. With that said, the coffee offerings are hit and miss. The Western Valley coffees are not as nice as the Eastern Valley coffees, but it does make a nice utility bean for blending. It does not have organic certification, but Papua New Guinea is organic by law, so certification is not necessary on coffee from here.

The beans are largely made up of the heirloom Bourbon and Typica varietals grown at 4,000+ feet above sea level. It is sorted by bean size, and these are the peaberries.

This one is nice as a light roast -- get through the first cracks, but don't take it too much beyond that. This bean is a little bit buttery and creamy, smooth but not a lot of complexity, some lemon, some peannut. It cracks late, and if you get it too light you'll get some undeveloped flavors that are grassy or vegetable and too tart, so listen for the cracks and make sure you don't pull it out too soon. You can drink it straight, or you can blend it with any coffee that is lacking body to give it a creamier body (Guatemala and Costa Rica are good candidates for blending with it).

However, this bean also holds up nicely as a dark roast. Take it 10 seconds into the rolling second cracks and you have a mug of coffee with that full bodied earthy rich character similar to a Sumatra -- but not as earthy as Sumatra. It's like Bali, but not as chocolatey/complex as Bali. (But blend it with Ethiopia and it's perfect for the Indonesian half of Mokka-Java blend). Or for those of you who really like to burn those beans, you can take this coffee a full 60 seconds into the rolling 2nd cracks and get it all dark oily but yet -- it won't be ashy and bitter -- it holds up very well and gives you a full bodied deep italian roast mug of sweet coffee.

February 2023 arrival